French media bias hurts Quebec’s democracy

MONTREAL—On the night of Oct. 2, 2022, a victorious Quebec Premier François Legault stood before an adoring crowd of Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) supporters at his headquarters in Quebec City. In French and then in English, he said, “When I say Quebecers form a great nation, I mean all Quebecers, from all regions, of all ages, of all origins. I am going to be the premier of all Quebecers.” Of course, his CAQ government had already passed the mean-spirited changes to the Charter of the French Language, Bill 96, in June of that year. The bill had sailed through the National Assembly with limited opposition: two of the opposition parties, Québec Solidaire and the Parti Québécois, are just as nationalist as the CAQ. The Quebec Liberal Party, while ostensibly federalist, supported the bill in first and second readings. Their committee performance was hapless, and motivated by a desire not to offend nationalist voters. While these machinations might have been expected, in other legislatures where groupthink has dominated, it was the media that held the government’s feet to the fire. I think of virtual one-party states such as Peter Lougheed’s Alberta of the late 1970s, Frank McKenna’s control in New Brunswick in 1987, or Gordon Campbell’s 77 of 79 seats in the 2001 British Columbia election. In Quebec, the French media does find fault with the premier. But it’s a selective critique: rarely, if ever, does it focus on the concerns of the province’s 1.25 million English-speakers. One reason is ownership: le Journal de Montreal and the TVA network are owned by Quebecor, run by one-time Parti Québécois leader Pierre-Karl Péladeau. In Quebecor media, there has been a virtual cacophony of columnists and commentators opposing any defence of the English-speaking community. Just recently, columnist Sophie Durocher wrote: “My resolutions are … to regularly remind the whining columnists of the Montreal Gazette to stop playing the victim.” The other main French papers, Le Devoir and La Presse, are not much better. Le Devoir was founded as a nationalist paper by Henri Bourassa in 1910. La Presse is no longer a newspaper, publishing online only. Both will frequently take shots at the anglophone community. Radio-Canada, which was a hotbed of separatists like René Lévesque in the past, is often hostile to Anglo concerns. Indeed, when the new federal Official Languages Act was tabled incorporating the Charter of the French Language, there were sneers from such established columnists as Michel C. Auger and Chantal Hébert. Responding to former Liberal MP Marlene Jennings’ assessment of the legitimate threats of Bill 96, Auger wrote, “This is the kind of talk that is totally exaggerated and does nothing to contribute to an intelligent debate on these issues.” By the time the Legault government was in full nationalist mode, Auger had changed his tune, writing in December, “For the English-speaking community, is confirmation that their institutions are not immune to a threat that could arrive from who knows where.” Just last week, I had a disturbing encounter with the bias of the francophone media. The organization I lead, the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, applied for an interlocutory injunction against the entirety of Bill 96, citing 30 English Quebecers whose lives have been harmed by the legislation. As we have done since our founding in 2021, we issued news releases in both languages, and I was available for interviews. There were several in English, none in French. One would think a high-powered legal challenge to the Charter of the French Language might make news in French. Instead, we were ignored. This was par for the course. And it was disgraceful: these taxpaying citizens are no less Quebecers than anyone else. When the anglophone community was powerful in years past, the French media listened. Now, the average anglophone Quebecer earns less than their French neighbours, and while most are bilingual, those who are not are the elderly, Indigenous, visible minorities, rural poor, new arrivals, and people with physical and mental challenges. It is these marginalized citizens who most need government services in English and are denied them. By not reporting fairly on the preoccupations of the anglophone community, the French media do a disservice to the cause of democracy in Quebec. Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a town councillor in Kamouraska, Que. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com. The Hill Times

French media bias hurts Quebec’s democracy

By not reporting fairly on the preoccupations of the anglophone community, the French media do a disservice to the cause of democracy in Quebec.

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French media bias hurts Quebec’s democracy

By not reporting fairly on the preoccupations of the anglophone community, the French media do a disservice to the cause of democracy in Quebec.

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